COASTAL TOURISM: THE ECONOMIC ENGINE THAT CAN RESTART THE US ECONOMY

Here are some Cold Hard Facts, gathered from the book An Introduction to Coastal Zone Management, by Timothy Beatly,et. al., in fact everything garnered in this essay is a direct quote and is attributable to this text:

NO single agency at the federal level has the exclusive control over coastal management, and there is no single or unified coastal zone policy or strategy that guides or coordinates federal actions or programs. Thus, coastal zone management responsibilities are fragmented and dispersed at the federal level.

In this fragmented system, the programs and policies of different federal agencies often work at cross-purposes. For example FEMA provides disaster relief and flood insurance, and this promotes development in hazardous areas, thus working at cross-purposes with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM).

Because some policies are designed to work in concert with other coastal management programs and authorities, and because these agencies are dispersed across different federal agencies, there is no unified national strategy for managing our national ecosystem and our coastal zones.

This fragmentation provides the federal government the opportunity to revamp and create a new system that reflects a strategic national policy for the management of the coastal zone, as one system.

The system's focus would then work in concert to create American jobs, boost our economy, and provide for the sustainable management of our coastal resources. The potential to kick start the economy with effective coastal zone management is tremendous because of these facts:

• Already MORE THAN HALF of the US Population reside along the coast and in coastal watersheds (Bookman et al.1999) 
• by 2015 US Coastal population will grow to 166 million
• The Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast coastal regions of the US are expected to experience the most population  and development growth
• Of the nation's 20 fastest growing counties, 17 are coastal
• 80 % of Californians and 60% of Floridians live  live within 10 miles of the Coast
• In 1960 62 people lived per coastal square mile by 2015 the population on the coast it is expected to rise to 327 people per square mile

These facts present clear demographics changes, challenges, and opportunity to assemble policy and to help jump start our economy. It also provides insight to direct political capital: political influence, and political stratagem, to direct and manage the most pressing challenge of our generation, the management of our coastal zones and communities. 

More importantly, it provides the administration and its leadership the opportunity to focus on two pronged (long and short term) strategy to jump start the economy with coastal management.

More Statistics on coastal use indicates the extent to which the US is using coastal areas for recreational purposes:

• Some 180 million Americans visit the coast every year

• National Park Service data suggests that visitation to national parks, national seashores, and national monuments have risen markedly.
• 77 million Americans engage in recreational boating

Coastal tourism is an economic engine now!

The Obama Administration and it's analyst have given a hard look at traditional sources and ways to invest in, in order to quickly jump start the economy, we need to look at a new paradigm for growth led by population trends and coastal zone use.

Limited resources, and the pressure of a possible doubling of our population by the year 2025 must force us to look at our coasts and the coastal pressures and its critical management issues as a means of investment to help jump start our economy, and move it into the 21st Century.

More Data Shows that:

• The American coastal zone remains the location of major cities and urban agglomerations
• 14 of the nation's 20 largest cities are located on the coastal zone
• Recent decades show that uses of coastline have shifted to include more recreational uses 
• Resource use of coastal zone remains significant in agriculture, fishing, oil, gas and minerals extraction

The big point is that:

COASTAL AREAS ARE ECONOMIC ENGINES, GENERATING SOME $54 BILLION IN GOODS AND SERVICES AND 28 MILLION JOBS.

All of this important to know when considering how to kick start the economy, but just as important are the pressures, problems and policy issues that go with population and development growth.

The substantial issues that arise from coastal population and development pressures also present long and short term opportunity for investment.

A consortium of public and private investment can helps us out of this economic and environmental hole we are in. The Army Corp of Engineers can create and developed major projects to energize the economy. Projects that involve coastal planning, and policy, mitigation and reinforcement, protection and conservation, energy development, and marine/fishery management, social equity and quality of life.

The Challenge is to Sustain the Coast, Spur the Economy, and Create Millions of American Jobs.

How we manage the following issues will be pivotal in forming a comprehensive approach to saving the American economy, and way of life.  All of the following issues can be can be addressed separately, but clearly they are interrelated and key to the well being of the nation.

• Coastal Storm Mitigation
• Shoreline Erosion and Sea Level Rise
• Strategic Retreat or Coastal Reinforcement
• Protection of Coastal Wetlands and Resource-lands
• Energy Development and the Coast
• Biodiversity and Habitat Conservation
• Marine and Fishery Management
• The Coast as a Recreational Commons: Protecting Access to Beaches and Shorelines
• Social Equity in Coastal Planning
• Coastal Sprawl, Land Use Pressures, and Quality of Life
• Private Property versus the Public Interest in Coastal Planning

Tackling these issues presents opportunity for creating millions of jobs across the board and across this nation, but more importantly it will keep the jobs from being outsourced, because these issues are exclusive to the coastal regions of the United States.

 

The solutions and benefits that come out of this will therefore promote local, regional, and national commerce and industry. The immediate and direct impact to the economy will be enormous. Not only will living wage jobs be created, but well paying jobs that will also affect the quality of American life now and the American Way of Life for many generations to come.